Accrington Stanley twice came from behind to secure a point against York City in a 2-2 draw.

After a dull first half, the game sparked into life when Luke Summerfield’s deflected goal opened the scoring for York, only for Sean Maguire to equalise shortly afterwards from close-range.

The visitors re-took the lead when Jake Hyde slid home from close range but Josh Windass’ free-kick took a deflection and found the bottom corner to rescue a draw.

John Coleman named an unchanged team from Tuesday night’s 2-2 draw at Wycombe, meaning that central defender Lloyd Jones made his home debut for the Reds.

Meanwhile, new signing Danny Whitehead was named on the bench as he awaited his first outing in front of the Stanley fans at the Store First Stadium.

The relegation-threatened visitors had the better of the opening exchanges, seeing Jake Hyde, Emile Sinclair and Josh Carson shoot wide of the target.

Sinclair limped off with an injury shortly and his replacement, Tom Platt, should have opened the scoring when Shaquille Coulthirst laid the ball on a plate for the attacker 12 yards out but he hit it straight at Rob Atkinson.

Matt Crooks had a sight of goal at the other end but had to stretch to make contact with the ball and skewed his effort over the bar whilst Platt shot straight at goalkeeper Scott Davies from 25 yards.

Crooks was then in the right place at the right time to head Hyde’s goalbound flick away from danger before Coulthirst swivelled on a sixpence and lashed a shot at goal but it was a routine collection for Davies.

Coulthirst had the first chance of the second half, rifling over from a tight angle and, eventually, Davies was forced into his first meaningful save of the afternoon as he got down low to his left to keep out Keith Lowe’s stinging drive.

York hit the Reds on the counter-attack to take the lead just after the hour as Summerfield’s shot from 20 yards deflected off a defender to wrong-foot Davies and find the net.

Piero Mingoia’s drilled cross almost found Terry Gornell eight yards out as Accrington immediately went in search of a leveller, but the striker could not stretch enough to make contact on the ball and the chance went begging.

However, Stanley would equalise from their next attack when a shot from Windass was blocked into the path of Maguire, who controlled the ball with his chest and finished coolly past Bobby Olejnik to bring Stanley level with his first goal since the 1-1 draw with Wycombe in December.

The relegation battlers were working hard and went back in front when Platt’s cross found central defender John McCombe in the penalty area. He knocked the ball square for Hyde to beat Davies from six yards out.

It seemed as though the Reds were going to succumb to defeat, but they rescued a point when Windass was fouled 25 yards out and the midfielder stepped up to send his free-kick into the bottom corner with the help of a deflection.

A half-chance almost fell to substitute Jason Gilchrist in stoppage time but both sides had to settle for a share of the spoils.

Stanley: Davies; Winnard, Jones (McCartan 86), Atkinson; Mingoia, Crooks, Joyce, Windass, Naismith; Maguire; Gornell (Gilchrist 86).
Subs not used: Liddle, Hunt, Conneely, Whitehead, Bruna.

Attendance: 1,454 (487 away)